KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine says its long-range strikes have neutralized more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity, hampering Moscow’s ability to supply its forces during its 4 1/2-year-old invasion.
The Defense Ministry said late Sunday that recent strikes on refineries in cities including Moscow, Yaroslavl, Ust-Luga, Perm, Saratov and Syzran had put 51% of Russia’s oil refining capacity out of action. The claim could not be independently verified.
Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified their aerial assaults as progress along the 1,200-kilometer (750-mile) front line has largely ground to a halt.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly attacked refineries from Moscow to Siberia, sparking a widespread fuel crisis in Russia earlier this year that forced authorities to restrict gasoline sales.
Russian officials have not publicly revealed any data on damage caused to the country’s oil infrastructure. However, President Vladimir Putin said in a rare admission on Oct. 1 that the strikes had cost Russia roughly 1% of its gross domestic product.
“They started attacking oil refineries and openly declared the goal of damaging our economy. Did they achieve their goal? Partially,” Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Club forum of international foreign policy experts.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara said analysts from Ukraine´s intelligence services, the General Staff and the Defense Ministry had assessed the strikes’ effects.
“Fifty-one percent of struck refining capacity is a significant blow to the enemy´s economy, to its ability to carry out aggression and supply its troop groupings. Our deep strikes continue to bring the war to Russian territory,” he said.
Russia has historically been the world’s third-largest producer of refined fuel products from crude after the U.S. and China.
Some of Russia’s 32 refineries have been hit as many as 15 times since the start of the war, and one refinery has been hit every three days in recent months, creating a cycle of damage and emergency repairs that could degrade units long term, according to the International Energy Agency.
Ukrainian strikes have also increasingly targeted the more complex equipment that removes impurities from fuel, which takes months to repair. The IEA says diesel output has fallen by about 30%, and drivers have had to wait up to 40 hours to fill up at gasoline stations.
Russian refiners have tried to compensate by delaying scheduled maintenance and bringing mothballed units back online. Another response has been to lower fuel quality standards to maintain gasoline supplies, which risks damage to engines and pollution control equipment.
The Kremlin has also banned diesel exports, pushing global prices higher and prompting U.S. President Donald Trump on Sept. 13 to urge Ukraine to stop hitting refineries.
A Russian attack with a guided aerial bomb killed at least three people and wounded 29 others, including three children, in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv Monday, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“There may be people under the rubble of the residential building that was hit. A search and rescue operation is underway,” Terekhov wrote on his Telegram channel.
An earlier Russian drone attack on the city’s Industrialnyi district also killed one person, Terekhov said late Sunday. Vehicles and an administrative building were set alight and apartment buildings were damaged, he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday that it had struck an electrical substation in the Kharkiv region, in addition to energy and port infrastructure and maritime vessels used by Ukraine’s military.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 205 drones overnight into Monday, of which 172 were shot down or suppressed.
Ukraine has struggled in recent weeks to fend off Russia´s intensified aerial attacks on cities that include ballistic missiles and high-flying jet-powered drones.
Kyiv has suffered under repeated air raid alerts, punctuated by loud explosions from drone and missile strikes. The onslaught aims to terrorize civilians, officials and analysts say, and break their will to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion since 2022.
Presidential adviser Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov said on social media that 12 automated turrets had been installed in Kyiv to counter jet-powered Shahed drones, with more planned. He described the turrets as artificial intelligence-controlled machine guns.
Ukraine’s air force later said that it had used the robotic turrets to successfully shoot down Russian jet-powered drones, including the Geran-5, for the first time.
“It’s machine vision that is used for the shootdowns. Artificial intelligence makes it possible to engage even jet-powered drones,” air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on Ukrainian television.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 199 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, as well as the illegally annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.
Operations at a border crossing between Moldova and Ukraine were suspended Monday after a shell fell close to the checkpoint during a Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure, Moldova´s Border Police said.
The shell fell near the Palanca-Mayaky-Udobne checkpoint, bounced off the ground and hit a passenger bus parked near the barrier, according to the statement.
The bus and a security checkpoint booth were damaged, and one border service employee suffered minor injuries, police said. No other casualties were reported. Border police advised people to avoid traveling to the area.